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Game No. 45

Posted Jan 18, 2012
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards usedhis timeout only 8:50 into the first period, his club trailing 2-0 and fully engaged in a game of pond hockey with the undermanned but upstart Edmonton Oilers.

There was no yelling. The wax board was but a prop.

“It just about getting them to understand that we’re better than this," Richards said. "We got the response we wanted, too.”

For the first time all season, the Blue Jackets overcame a 2-0 deficit to win a game. Imagine that ... 45 games. The final was 4-2 and a small but engaged crowd of 13,814 in Nationwide Arena seemed appreciative.

They may have witnessed an obscure NHL record: three Dereks (one spelled Derick) were the three stars of the game.

Derick Brassard, Derek MacKenzie and Derek Dorsett (empty-net) scored for the Blue Jackets, as did some guy named Ryan (Johansen). Curtis Sanford had 21 saves and was very good (and pretty lucky) in the first period to keep the score within two goals.

“We played with a purpose in the final 40 minutes,” Sanford said. “I don’t know if the old team would have been able to do that.”

The old team Sanford referred to was the Blue Jackets before Richards took over for fired coach Scott Arniel four games (2-2-0) ago, bringing with him a softer voice, a new approach and a sense of levity.

During the first intermission, Richards had a few words to say, but mostly he turned the dressing room over to the players, letting them make the necessary changes before the start of the second period.

“It was an attitude adjustment in the second,” Sanford said, “a between-the-ears adjustment.”

MacKenzie said: “What was nice is that we talked about it and then actually went out and did it.”

Johansen, a rookie, pulled the Jackets to 2-1 at 2:37 of the second, scoring on a wrister from the left dot that sailed inside the far post behind Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk.

A fluky goal with 0.8 seconds left in the second pulled the Jackets to 2-2.

Brassard, arguably Columbus’ best player since Richards’ has taken over, jumped on a rebound and fired it back on Dubnyk. The puck kicked off Dubnyk’s right pad and into the slot, then glanced off a skate of Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry and skidded under Dubnyk.

“I don’t know how it looks from up top,” Brassard said. “But we’re working our (butts) off out there. We look like a team. We care for each other.”

The Jackets took the lead only 32 seconds into the third when newcomer Colton Gillies chipped the puck around the Oilers defense, gathered it on the other side and made a perfect centering pass to MacKenzie for a point-blank one-timer.

Dorsett’s wide-open empty-net goal – the first empty-netter of his NHL career – was scored with 21.4 seconds left to end the scoring.

Side dishes:

-- Edmonton, ravaged by injuries, lost another top talent in gruesome fashion before the game when left wing Taylor Hall (15 goals) was injured in a bizarre incident during warm-ups. Hall tripped on a puck, fell and slid into defenseman Ladislav Smid, who also went down. The pair fell into the path of defenseman Corey Potter, who jumped in an attempt to avoid the pile-up but caught the top of Hall’s head with his skate-blade. Hall, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered a major gash that took about 30 stitches to close. “I just turned into the corner and had two guys sliding at me and just tried to get out of the way,” Potter said. “It was a pretty freak accident. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cut that bad that close before. It was pretty deep. It was pretty gross.”

-- Brassard and Dorsett scored on the man advantage, ending a 1-of-26 power-play skid The Blue Jackets ended a 10-game, 1-for-26 power-play skid. It was the fourth game in which the Blue Jackets scored multiple power-play goals.

-- Dorsett was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a failed attempt to entice Oilers defenseman Theo Peckham into a fight late in the first period. “I was just asking him to fight, trying to get the guys going,” Dorsett said. “I’ve never seen that penalty called before (for that). I’ve seen it if you’re jawing with a guy, punching back and forth. But I didn’t touch him. It was a weird penalty. But we lived with it. The guys rallied and we killed it off.”

-- The Blue Jackets have won their past five home games against Edmonton.

-- Gillies made his Blue Jackets debut and recorded his first assist since Nov. 3. Gillies whirred his way down the left-wing wall, played the puck around a defender and played a centering pass to MacKenzie for what proved to be the winner 32 seconds into the third period. “It was a turnover and we ended up capitalizing on it,” Gillies said. “Mac just went hard to the net. I was fortunate enough to see his stick and get it there.”

-- Johansen broke a nine-game goalless streak. He has eight goals but had not scored since Dec. 22.

-- The Blue Jackets will practice at 11 a.m. Thursday in Nationwide Arena. They will close a four-game homestand on Thursday against the Predators and play at Detroit on Saturday.

-- Defenseman Grant Clitsome was a healthy scratch for the fourth consecutive game. He has been a scratch in every game since Richards replaced Scott Arniel.

-- Left wing R.J. Umberger (concussion symptoms) was placed on injured reserve today. He is officially listed as week-to-week.

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